“We are generating so much data today that it is physically impossible to store it all,” according to McKinsey Global Institute. This makes the old maxim, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” even more difficult to put into practice. New tools, new software and new skills are needed to mine, manage and salvage big data.

Carolinas HealthCare System’s Dickson Advance Analytics (DA2) leads the charge on greater transparency and reduced health care waste. By transforming the way it interprets data, it hopes to benefit patients and the community, as well as the health care system.

Jerry Snyder is making a difference at Advanced Mission Systems with engineers who build things like ‘MacGyver.’ NCOs tell what they need and how it should work; the engineers build it; and retired Special Forces people deliver the equipment complete with training.

“I am proud to be part of a company that is such an integral part of what America is,” says Natalie Tindol, owner of Tindol Ford and Subaru. “We’re not the biggest, but we work hard to be the best,” she says of her Gastonia dealership.

“On the back of our business cards is our motto, ‘Promises kept,’” says Glenn Williams of Intellinet Corporation. “Beyond us being a great strategy and technology company, we strive to do what we say, and at the end of the day,that’s what’s most important.”